Friday, October 28, 2005

Toledo—Coming in for a Floral Landing

Big-shouldered cities of the American Midwest have been slumping over for several decades. Toledo, Ohio, in a sense is typical. Population of this city on the shores of Lake Erie, a former giant of glass manufacturing, is declining and, to judge by what “makes” a U.S. city, Toledo hasn’t had a major league baseball team since the Maumees in 1890.

But if a move by the city’s port authority succeeds, it will become a major league flower transport center. The city’s transportation directors voted yesterday “to approve spending $625,000 to convert part of the Cargo Building at Toledo Express into refrigerated storage.” The firm that will lease this facility and operate the transport center “also will pay the port authority $1.5 million up front for a 10-year option to lease 20 acres” nearby for future development.

“Proposed cargo flights…would haul roses from Quito, Ecuador, to Toledo, then take other cargoes to Frankfurt, Germany, and from Europe to South America.”

Currently, Miami dominates transportation of flowers and other perishables from South America into the U.S. But according to Toledo’s transport chief, “there have long been rumblings about shifting that trade to the Midwest, which is closer to a greater number of population centers and thus offers shorter delivery times.”

The company, Glopexx, plans initially for six weekly flights of flowers into Toledo.